Dial Records is a label created by Carsten Jost, Turner, and Peter M. Kersten a.k.a. Lawrence whose music is like having Techno and Ambient sharing seats in a boat of Deep House. This compilation album consists of new tracks created by artists of the label. Roman Flügel may be the one of the most well-known artist within them, and he has his album releases from this label since the 2010’s. It was not quite ago when both Lawrence, the owner of the label and Roman Flügel have shown up in a same compilation album, as I recall that I have mentioned about an Ambient compilation album, “Enjoy the Silence” in this blog before. However, this Dial Records’ compilation album is not exactly an Ambient album, nor like Kompakt label’s annually released series, “Pop Ambient” that consist of the music that seems to wander around in between Techno and Ambient. This album may sound more like a piece filled with a fog emerging from the label’s underground mood and Experimental sensibility.

The album opens with an Ambient track by Christian Naujoks, known for Neo-Classical works; the track is composed of acoustics of slowly hit keyboards that could be like blocks that appear in good old arcade game, “Breakout” being played in a pitch black cyber area as featured in the film, “TRON”. “I Want to be Art” by Stephan Tcherepnin known also for his fine arts is a weird Downtempo, in which a girl chants English verses with a typical Japanese accent. These tracks may be the examples that characterize the label’s Experimental aspect, but the others that follow are tracks that seem to nestle close to the mood of Deep House, which also could be thought as one of the aspects that color this label. RNDM’s “Summer Smile” is a Minimal Deep House track which lets you imagine slices of a lemon sliding in to a cold glass of water. “My Confession” by Carsten Jost, one of the founders of the label, is like a track created by tipsy Theo Parrish sipping on his glass of rum; and crystals and fluids roll and dance to heavy basses in Lawrence’s “Chez Dupont”. Yet, tracks like Pawel’s “All Nearness Pauses” that remind me of a nostalgic darkness such found in the 90’s Guitar Pop, suddenly appear in the album as to reveal another aspect of the label. The Queens’ “Earth Angel” is a Shoegazer played in a foggy graveyard, and you will find My Bloody Valentine’s spirits floating around while Dub beats of a rhythm box bounces in James K’s “S Lush”. While, like being released from this good oldness, some tracks that wear 2010’s newness are also included in this album. John Roberts’ “Paloma” has this lunatic oriental lines like what found in Arca’s recent album and Dawn Mok’s track sounds as if having James Blake singing in Boys II Men’s harmony. Physical Therapy’s “Market Crash” is pretty attractive for dwarfs of Hardcore shout out in frivolous Tribal beats. Within such variety of styles, DJ Richard, who now could be said to be one of the outstanding figures of the label, stands out well in the album with his track “Zero”, in which Burial’s creepy darkness and IDM’s deformed silence are juxtaposed in a queer balanced state by a help of cold Techno beats. And the most inspiring pieces are: Roman Flügel’s “In Your Wardrobe”, in which a Neo-Classical thread weaves Detroit Techno and DubTechno together by keeping an exquisite tension in between the two, and Pantha du Prince’s “Timeout on the Rocks”, an elegant track in which a crystal steam locomotive runs in the ocean of velvet. The album indeed is filled with Experimental approaches, but it sounds luscious enough to make you please.